Health Laborers’ Union: Health Workers’ Right to Life Being Violated

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA)

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The Health and Social Service Laborers' Union (SES) has shared its monthly evaluation report on Covid-19 outbreak with the public.

Noting that healthcare laborers are forced to work for a long time and in hard conditions, the Union has briefly stated the following:

"Appointments and bans enforced without considering special conditions, dismissals from private medical institutions and Joint Health and Safety Units (OSGB), cuts from extra and shift pays and similar other factors cause the work stress of health laborers to rise and lead to burn-out. Health workers' control over their work has been significantly undermined. Unless necessary measures are taken, it might cause serious mental health problems.

'You have the right to halt work'

"All laborers have the right to withdraw from production if necessary and adequate precautions are not taken against Covid-19. We would like to, once again, underline that healthcare laborers also have this right. Health laborers are forced to work with their right to life violated.

"As emphasized in the documents of both the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations (UN), forced work cannot be accepted without providing the necessary conditions. As we have been indicating since the beginning of the process, requesting the provision of necessary conditions for health laborers is both a right and a responsibility to protect our own health as well as that of the society."

The report has raised the following requests:

* No information is announced as to the infected health laborers or the ones who have contact with the virus, which causes a great concern. Institution-based information as to the number of related health laborers as well as their treatment should be shared with the organizations of health laborers such as the SES and Turkish Medical Association (TTB) and their representatives.

* In addition to the shortage of personal protective equipments, there are also problems of conformity to standards and quality, especially in the equipments handed out in İstanbul. (...) Health laborers cannot be forced to use equipments whose standards are not indicated and how they are supplied is not clear.

* Healthcare laborers should know that in case their health and lives are at risk, they can halt work until the necessary safe conditions are ensured.

* There are still problems regarding the regular test of health laborers. (...) Regardless of whether they show any symptoms or not, all healthcare laborers should be tested every five days, thereby protecting health laborers and preventing the transmission of the disease.

* Covid-19 should be recognized as an occupational disease in a way that will also cover public and private cleaning workers. Health laborers should be able to work without worrying about bureaucratic procedures about wages, damages or application for their right to not work if they catch the disease.

* Security investigations should be abolished and it should be ensured that all appointed healthcare laborers begin their duty. The health laborers discharged from public service by Statutory Decrees should be reinstated immediately and the unappointed health laborers shoıd be appointed as soon as possible.

* Even when the outbreak gets more intense, all of the healthcare laborers in risk group should continue to work in background services.

* New hospitals/field hospitals are planned to be constructed. The Ministry of Health should do planning as to the labor force that will work and be assigned to work there. The assignments should conform to the legal regulations, the laborers to be assigned should be informed in time and they should be assigned with their special conditions and gender taken into consideration.

* The health laborers who have just started working or have been recently assigned to a new institution should not be allowed to work before their orientation and training about Covid-19 outbreak are completed.

* Healthcare laborers worry about not only their own risks, but also about their potential transmission to their relatives. In addition to offering more accomodation opportunities such as guest houses, etc, the health laborers to be hosted there should be provided with humane conditions, their needs should be met, their problems with food and transportation should be solved properly and free of charge. Moreover, separate housing opportunities should be offered to laborers who had contact with the virus or have tested positive.

* It should be ensured that labor and professional organizations as well as workers' representatives can participate in the processes of decision-making and implementation of precautions to be taken in medical institutions, the boards of employee health and safety should be activated and they should operate in a way that will allow this participation.

(RT/SD)